


A Cheesy Story About Ice Skating and Christmas

by JarvisUandDUMEtoo



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Break Up, Christmas, Fluff and Humor, Getting Back Together, Ice Skating, Inspired by Hallmark Christmas Movies, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 08:28:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17422406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JarvisUandDUMEtoo/pseuds/JarvisUandDUMEtoo
Summary: Tony is the king of the small nation of Evergreen, famous for their Christmas festival. Too bad he hates both being king, and the festival, which is soon approaching.Steve is an ice skating coach, visiting Evergreen with his friend Sam. He's only staying for a few weeks but he finds himself falling head over heels for a local who works for the palace.When secrets are revealed, and difficult choices have to be made, will they be able to stay together? Will they even want to?I am a slow writer so please enjoy this Christmas story three weeks after Christmas.





	A Cheesy Story About Ice Skating and Christmas

### Chapter 1- Tony’s Perspective

Tony leaned back in his chair and looked out the window of the castle. Snow was drifting down from above to cover the small nation of Evergreen in a light powder, making everything appear appropriately Christmassy. Evergreen was famous for its extravagant Christmas festival is held every year, where people from around the world would come to celebrate with parades, concerts, shopping and finally capping off a week long extravaganza with a ice ballet version of the Nutcracker. Or at least, that was the tradition. The previous year had been the first year in over a century that the festival had been canceled, by none other than Tony himself. It had been his first ever order as the newly crowned king. It had been an unpopular decision, because without the festival, the nation lost a key source of tourism income and suffered through the rest of the year. Today was November first and in half an hour Tony was supposed to go on stage and announce if they would hold the festival or not this year. 

He sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. The nation needed the money, needed the publicity. To cancel the festival would be selfish. It brought thousands of people prosperity and joy, it was a sacred tradition. The correct choice was clear. Tony stood up and walked out of his office and downstairs. Happy was waiting for him, leaning against the side of the car. Tony got in the back and Happy got in front, giving him a worried look in the mirror. Tony waved him on, and Happy stared the car. They drove down the winding path from the castle and arrived in the city square. Tony got out of the car and walked to the back of the stage where Rhodey and Pepper were waiting. 

“You’re doing the right thing,” Rhodey assured him as Pepper straightened his tie and brushed his hair back. Tony immediately ruffled it again. “Whatever. When do I go on?” Pepper gave up on making him look presentable and handed him a stack of cue cards. “Five minutes. Stick to the cards and you’ll be fine. You got this.” 

Tony pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his back pocket and slipped them on. “Of course I do. They’ll be eating out of the palm of my hand, just you watch. I’m giving the people what they want, aren’t I?” He gave her a cocky grin and Pepper gave him a sad look before ushering him to the stairs leading up to the stage. The watched as the nation crier listed of Tony’s long string of kingly titles, then he rolled his shoulders out, turned his fake grin up a notch and strolled out confidently onto the stage. As he walked towards the microphone there were a few quiet boos. In his short year of rule, many of the decisions he had made had been less than popular, and many people were expecting the worst from this speech. Tony grabbed the microphone and began his speech, reading from the cards. “Greetings to the dear citizens of Evergreen. It is a pleasure to stand before you again.” 

“Are you canceling the Christmas festival or not?” a voice yelled from the crowd. Tony looked up from his cards with a frown. “I was getting there.” 

“Get there faster.” 

“We all know you don’t have the balls to cancel it!” 

“Quit wasting our time already.” 

“I wish King Howard were here, he’d never put us through this!” 

“You know what? Fine!” Tony threw his cards down and backstage Pepper put her head in her hands. “Here we go,” said Rhodey grimly. Tony stalked forward to the end of the stage. “I’m cancelling your stupid festival. How about that, huh?” 

The crowd booed and someone tossed a tomato on stage, splattering it at Tony’s feet. People in the crowd yelled angrily. “You’re killing our nation!” 

“Arrogant idiot!” 

“You can’t cancel a 100 year tradition!” 

“How are we supposed to survive without the festival? You’re a monster.” 

“Selfish!” 

Tony yelled back. “I’m trying to save this nation! You’re all trapped in the past! We suffer through 3/4s of the year because we don’t have anything to offer beyond the festival. We need something year round, I have so many ideas, give me two years and we could be the leaders in clean energy in the whole continent!” 

“No one cares about your lightbulbs you dumbass!” 

“His parents would be so disappointed. Now they were real leaders.” 

“King Howard never would have allowed for this, he would have been a real king.” 

Someone started a chant. “Festival! Festival! Festival!” More tomatoes were thrown on stage, splattering Tony’s dark suit with red. Tony flipped them off and stomped off the stage. He passed Rhodey who grabbed his arm. “Tony, you agreed that the festival would go on…” ` 

Tony shook him off. “I changed my mind.” He got in the car and crossed his arms. 

“Your Highness?” 

“The castle, Happy.” 

Happy opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, knowing that it would not be welcome when Tony was in a mood like this. He started the car and brought it back to the castle. Tony got out before the car was even off and to his room, closing his door with a slam, the sound echoing through the empty halls. 

### Chapter 2- Steve's Perspective

Steve hiked his bag higher on his shoulder. He was standing outside the door of the motel where he had been staying with his best friend Sam for the past two weeks while Sam had been competing in the ice skating championship. He was famous world wide as being one of the very best, and Steve was his coach and right now, pack mule. “Hurry up!” Steve yelled. 

“Coming!” Sam came out of the room and shut the door behind him. They both walked to the car. Steve tossed the bags in the trunk and came back around to settling into the passenger side. He yawned and slouched down in his seat. “God, I’m ready to go home. Longest week of my life.” 

“Hmmm. About that… how would you feel about a little detour?” 

“Detour?” Steve frowned. “What sort of detour?” 

“There’s supposed to be some sort of crazy Christmas festival in the next country over. I saw it on the news a few years ago, it looked pretty cool. They have food, parades, concerts, all sorts of stuff.” 

“Any chance there’s a ice skating performance?” 

“Maybe.” Sam admitted guiltily. Steve put a hand over his eyes. 

“You literally just finished a skating competition and now you wanna go do a performance?” 

“I like to skate! And it goes all the way though Christmas, so I thought it might be something to keep you busy. Last year I left you alone and you spent the whole day moping. This could be good for both of us.” 

Steve looked out the window to avoid answering Sam. He wanted to go home, but at the same time the thought of going back to an empty apartment to watch tv alone all day seemed miserable. They didn’t have another competition scheduled until late February. A Christmas festival might be fun. Steve hadn’t celebrated since his mom died, and that was years ago. He still went to Sunday mass, he just didn’t do any of what Sam referred to as “the good stuff”; the gifts, food, trees. It might be fun to indulge a little this year. 

“If you can get a role in the performance, I’ll stay. Come on, what would you do without me?” 

“I’d be fine. You without me? Dead in a week.” Sam laughed and guided the car out of the motel parking lot and onto the road. 

He drove for about an hour, the roads lined with pines and slightly wet with snow. The passed a quaint little house painted to look like gingerbread. Steve was sure that in December it would be magical, but in early November it just felt weird. The found a small motel on the edge of nation and rented two rooms next to each other. Steve took his key card from a woman dressed like and elf and dragged his bags up a flight of stairs to his room. By time he got to the top he had to stop and put his head between his knees until he could breathe again. Steve had asthma and he had it bad; sometimes even a single flight of stairs could be a challenge. His health problems were the main reason he was a coach instead of a skater. 

When he recovered he pushed himself to his feet and swiped his card against the scanner on the door. It let him in with a small beep. The inside of the room matched everything else Steve had seen here so far. Curtains decorated with presents covered a window with wavy gingerbread trim, the bed comforter was covered in winking Santa’s and the walls were papered with a mistletoe pattern. It was a little much, and Steve could tell he was going to be sick of it by the end of the week, let alone two months. 

Steve walked over to Sam’s room and after a quick knock he let him in, revealing an identical decorating scheme. Steve sat down on the bed as Sam unpacked. “I had to give this place kudos. Once they picked a theme, they went all in.” 

Sam nodded. “I wanted Christmas, and I got Christmas. It’s a tourist town, they have to ride their gimmick. You want to go into town to see if we can scrounge up some beer?” “It’s probably going to be gingerbread flavored or something.” Steve complained, but ultimately agreed. 

They got back into the car and drove further into town. Christmas lights decorated every tree, and jingle bells played softly from hidden speakers. A mechanical snowman waved a never ending hello. Sam parked the car and they walked into what they hoped was a bar. With a name like “The 13th Drummer” it really could have been anything. It was indeed a bar, and they sat on stools and waited for the bartender to come over. Steve took in the room. It was probably the least Christmassy place he had been in so far, with only a few sprigs of mistletoe resting between the bottles on the shelf and the extensive list of peppermint and gingerbread drinks matching the rest of the nation’s holiday theme. 

There were a decent number of people there, lined up along the bar and sitting scattered around tables. One man in particular caught Steve’s eye. He was sitting alone in the back, hunched over his drink. He was the only person wearing black, in a sea of red and green. Maybe another a tourist, but by the way the bartender slid him another drink without asking, Steve figured he had to be a regular. 

The man looked up to thank the bartender and Steve’s breath caught. Brown hair so dark it was almost black fell in gentle waves over the largest and most soulful pair of eyes Steve had ever seen. He immediately returned to his drink, his cheeks blushing pink. “Soulful eyes?” What the hell was wrong with him? He had always been a hopeless romantic but something about this cheesy over the top place was making him even worse. Sam had noticed his interest and subsequent embarrassment. He grinned and punched Steve’s shoulder. “You should go to talk to him.” 

Steve shook his head. “No, I am perfectly fine right here.” 

“C’mon man. When’s the last time you had a fling? Not since Germany. What’s the harm in going over to say hi?” 

“We’re only going to be here two months, it wouldn’t be fair to try to start something.” Steve struggling to come up with a reasonable excuse. That one didn’t pass Sam’s muster and he scoffed at Steve. 

“You don’t need to marry the guy. There’s nothing wrong with messing around, having a little fun for a few weeks. Go talk to him or I’ll go over there and introduce you myself.” 

Steve blanched. Last time that had happened Sam had told the story of when he had almost drowned in the river trying to find his frisbee. He had been embarrassed for weeks. His supposed friend and wanna be wingman started to slide off his chair and Steve got up first. “Alright, alright, I’m going.” He held up his hands in mock surrender. Steve walked over to the table and cleared his throat. The man’s head whipped up and his eyes narrowed. His hands curled protectively around his drink and his lips thinned into a line. Steve cleared his throat again. “Um. Hi? I’m Steve, I was wondering if I could buy you a drink?” The man scowled, and barked. “Don’t play around. Get it over with. “ 

Steve knew he was bad at flirting, and physically not the most impressive with his thin bony limbs, but this was still probably the worst his attempts at flirting had ever gone and he was only one sentence in. He had done better after the frisbee story, for God’s sake. “If you don’t want a drink that’s fine. May I sit?” 

The man glared at him and didn’t respond. Steve decided that this obviously wasn’t going anywhere and turned around. Sam was sitting at the bar making ‘I’m watching you’ gestures. One more try then, so Sam couldn’t rag on him later. He turned back to the man and slid into the seat across from him. He didn't technically said he couldn’t sit. Glaring wasn’t an answer. Steve tried to start up a conversation. “So, I just got into town a couple hours ago, I’m from the US originally, now I’m traveling for my job. Any stuff around here you’d recommend? I’m assuming you’re a local.” 

The man’s eyes widened and his posture immediately opened up. “Tourist? Oh thank God.” he said with obvious relief. He took a big gulp of his drink and leaned back in his chair. “I thought you were- well, nevermind. It’s not important. There’s lots of good places around here. I like the 13th Drummer because it’s a break from all the Christmas.” He made an exaggerated face to go along with his sweeping hand motion and Steve found himself biting back a laugh. He was surprised at the man’s 180 degree change from grump to charmer but he wasn’t about to complain. 

“Yeah, this place is a little over the top. Is it like this year round?” The man nodded and launched into a story about how weird it was celebrating New Years or Valentines when everything was still all Christmas trees and gingerbread. Steve found himself laughing, and the conversation flowing easily. Before he knew it, he had spent close to four hours talking with the man and Sam was more than ready to leave. He tapped Steve on the shoulder impatiently. “Time to go, Romeo. They’re going to be closing soon.” Sam turned to the man and held out a hand and introduced himself as Sam, Steve’s friend. The man in black shook his hand polity and said his name was Tony. Steve repeated it to himself. Tony. It suited him. Steve pulled out his wallet and pulled out his business card. “I got to go, but here’s my number, maybe we could do this again?” 

“I’d like that.” Tony glanced down at the card. “Figure skating coach?” 

“Yeah. I was all ready to go home but this guy,” he pointed back at Sam, who grinned. “He wanted to come here for two months for the big figure skating show at the end of the Christmas festival. Maybe watch, hopefully perform. So, here I am.” 

Tony’s eyes widened and he fidgeted with the card. “You’re only here for the festival? What if it got cancelled?” 

“We’d probably go. All of this Christmas stuff everywhere is too much for me, and we both have friends back in the US we haven't seen for over a month. Why would it be canceled? Have you heard something?” 

“The King announced yesterday that it wouldn’t be happening.” 

Steve and Sam looked at each other in dismay. “Damn. I was looking forward to skating but I guess this way we get more time back home.” Sam said. Steve nodded and looked at Tony. He felt like they had been working toward something good and was sad to see it not pan out, but he didn’t have any other reasons to stay. “I guess I have to take back my offer. It was nice meeting you, Tony. Too bad it only ended up being for a night.” 

Tony looked as crushed as Steve felt. “Yeah. Have a nice trip home.” 

They said their goodbyes and Steve and Sam went back to the motel. Steve collapsed into bed and buried his head under a pillow. He tried to tell himself not to be so disappointed. Once he got home, he was going to forget all about the man with the soulful brown eyes. 

### Chapter 3- Tony’s Perspective

Tony was sitting in his office tinkering with an old computer when Pepper walked in and slapped down a stack of newspapers on the desk. Tony looked up from his work. 

“What’s all this?” Pepper scowled at him and spread the papers out, point to each one. “Christmas Grinch, Kingly Tantrum, Ho Ho No. The people aren't happy.” 

Tony shrugged. “Yeah. I got an earful from everyone at the speech and all day yesterday.” 

“You agreed the festival would go on, I know that you’re still upset about-” 

Tony leapt from his chair and clapped a hand over her mouth. “You’re right! You are absolutely right. The show must go on, I’m not making any more speeches but whatever you need me to sign or plan, I’ll do it.” 

He took his hand off of her mouth and she remained silent, her mouth gaping in total astonishment. He snapped his fingers. “Come on Potts, I know you’ve brought the papers.” She nodded and reached into her bag. She pulled out a packet and pushed it across the desk. Tony looked it over. Zoning permissions, legal permissions, budget approval. He flipped through and sighed with a flourish, pushing it back to Pepper who stuffed it into her bag before he could try to change his mind. 

“Thank you! I had a whole argument prepared, I really thought you were going to be difficult about this.” 

“I’m a reasonable man.” Tony shrugged, returning to his tinkering. 

Pepper tilted her head, her relief bleeding into suspicion. “No.... not about this. Not around Christmas. What did you do?” 

Tony threw out his arms in mock exasperation. “I signed your papers! The festival can go on!” 

“Exactly. What did you do that was so bad you signed the papers to try to distract me or butter me up? Just tell me now, I’ll find out eventually but the sooner I know the quicker I can start damage control.” 

“For once I have been an absolute angel of a human being. Your doubt wounds my fragile heart.” 

“Fine, don’t tell me. I’ll sick Rhodey on you and he’ll find out.” 

“He won’t have any better luck. Hard to discover a crime that doesn't exist.” Tony got up from the desk and walked around her. He paused in the door. “Will that be all, Miss Potts?” 

“That will be all, your highness.” she said, the “I’m watching you” part remaining unspoken. Tony gave her a wave and walked down the hall, already pulling out his phone. He made a new message to a number he had programed in last night. 

“Great news, the festival is happening after all” 

A few seconds later he got a response. “That is great news! We’ll stay. Would you like to get dinner tomorrow to celebrate?” 

Tony smiled down at his phone. Sometimes, it was good to be king. 

### Chapter 4- Steve's Perspective

After a few days Steve found the nation growing on him. Everything existing in a constant state of Christmas stopped coming off as tacky and started being a odd form of modern art. Everyone trying to outdo each other to isolate the very essence of Christmas. And a lot of it was pretty cute, Steve thought to himself as he hit the head off of the most adorable gingerbread man he had ever seen. He had a whole box of them, a gift from Tony. They had gone out everyday since they had met, and everytime they parted it felt like agony to wait a full day before seeing the man again. Tony was so funny and kind, and he gave Steve gifts like it was going out of style. Steve was embarrassingly smitten, as Sam never failed to point out. His friend seemed worried on how quickly he was getting invested, but Steve had always been this way about liking someone. It was a fast and hard, all or nothing sort of thing. And the picture perfect story book setting was only encouraging his sappy romantic heart. Maybe the idea of true love had popped up once or twice. 

Because what he had with Tony… it was perfect. When he was with Tony he forgot about not being good enough to skate himself, about giving up his dreams to help coach others instead, about always fighting his body to do something as simple as walking up a flight of stairs. Tony never got impatient, never pushed, always let Steve take it at his own pace without offering any sort of pity. And Tony was handsome and always had a clever thing to say as Steve stumbled his way through trying to do basic small talk. Steve had never considered himself much of a talker before, but around Tony it all seemed to come spilling out, and Tony never once called him out for how stupid some of it was. And the way Tony looked at him… Steve had long ago accepted that he would never be a looker. Too many health problems and back alley fights had wrecked a body already on the small and boney side. But when Tony said gentle, graceful, gorgeous, Steve couldn’t find it in himself to fight him. When he was with Tony, everything felt easy, everything felt right. They were meeting again today for dinner, after Sam’s audition at the castle. 

Steve packed up his stuff and met Sam at the car. They took the winding path up to the castle, and it was quite the sight. Two towers spirited high in the sky, perfectly framing the main building, all lined with elegant windows and built out of stone. Like the rest of the nation, it looked like something out of a story book. 

They parked in the driveway next to a long line of other cars, and made their way indoors. They got in line and waited to give a frazzled woman their information. She handed Sam a number bib and directed them to the palace’s ice rink. There were more people lined up along the outside of the rink, with a skater on the ice doing a technically excellent if uninspired pirouette for a panel of judges. 

Steve looked over to scope out the judges, and his eyes widened in shock. It was Tony! He punched Sam’s arm. “Look!” Sam looked at him the over to where he was pointing frantically. “What? Oh man! That’s your guy! I’m getting in for sure.” 

“Sam!” Seve hissed, and punched him again. “Why is he here?” 

“How would I know? Guest judge? Go ask him.” 

Steve bit his lip and nodded. He started making his way towards the judge’s table. As he got close a beefy man dressed in black with a earpiece stepped in front of him. “No skaters past this point.” 

“I’m not a skater, I’m a coach. Could I talk to Tony?” Steve peered around him. The man moved to block his view and sputtered angrily. “You want to talk to- you’ve got to be kidding me with this.” The judges had noticed the commotion and the woman next to Tony nudged him. He broke off his conversation and looked over and saw Steve. For a second his face was filled with what Steve could only describe as panic, before being wiped away and replaced with a carefully crafted smile. Tony came over and pulled Steve into a quiet corner where they could talk. The guard tried to follow and huffed in resigned frustration as Tony waved him off. Steve crossed his arms. “What are you doing here?” He asked, his boyfriend’s odd behavior making him nervous. 

Tony shifted side to side, glancing back towards the rest of the judges. 

“I work for the palace. I’m helping put together the festival.” 

“Oh!” Steve relaxed. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but with the way Tony looked when he saw him he thought it was going to be something bad. Nothing wrong with working for the king's palace, Steve was sure it took quite a few people to keep this place running. “Is the king here now? I heard he was supposed to be here.” 

“No, no he’s not. He’s a very busy man, our king.” Tony stuttered out, looking towards the judges table where they were all staring at him. Tony turned back to Steve. “Look, I need to get back. Why don’t you go find Sam? I’ll make sure he gets a spot.” 

“Only if he earns it.” Steve insisted. Tony looked at him fondly. “You’re too honest for your own good. Fine. Only if he earns it. Just know that I don’t know anything about figure skating.” 

“Maybe I’ll have to teach you.” 

“I think I’d like that. See you tonight?” 

Steve agreed and gave him a quick kiss before darting back into the crowd to find Sam. 

### Chapter 5- Tony’s Perspective

Tony was frozen to the spot. It was traditional for the king to be present at the selection process for the skaters, and he had wanted to make sure Sam got a spot so he hadn’t fought Pepper when she dragged him along. He hadn’t expected Steve to be here, and while he had never said he wasn’t king, he hadn’t exactly been forthright about it either. 

When he was with Steve, he enjoyed being himself. There were no expectations, no titles, just Tony. And that was enough for Steve. And he was so sweet. After years of carefully arranged dates with suitable matches, and more years of the least suitable people possible to piss off his parents, Tony wasn’t ready for Steve’s honest, gentle affection. They were always holding hands, resting heads on shoulders, giving tiny innocent kisses. Normally he loved those kisses, but for the first time Tony found himself wishing that Steve was less demonstrative. Tucked away in the corner, there was no chance that any of the skaters had seen the quick kiss. But the judges table had a clear view. Tony turned, and yup, Pepper and Rhodey had both definitely seen the whole thing. He slinked back to the table and took his seat, staring straight ahead. “Alright, let’s hear it.” Pepper shrugged as Rhodey snickered at him. 

“Honestly? This is best case scenario. You’ve been so weird and cagey, I was waiting to find out you punched a foreign dignitary. Remember what happened with France? And now we know why you decided the festival was back on! The mystery of it was killing me. Nothing wrong with a new fling.” 

“He’s not a fling!” Tony looked through the crowd until his eyes alighted on Steve. He sighed wistfully. “He’s like no one I’ve ever met. He’s so kind and determined. And brave, and handsome, and-” 

The judge at the end of the table, one of the only two who actually knew anything about ice skating, cleared her throat. “We still have a line of contestants to judge, is this going to take much longer?” Pepper kicked her under the table but it was too late, Tony clammed up. “Right, of course.” He pressed the button to turn on his speaker. “Next contestant please?” 

They made it through all of the contests by the end of the afternoon, and when the scores were tallied Tony checked the list and found Sam had made it without any interference from him. Tony signed his approval and passed the list off to Pepper who would be calling to congratulate the accepted candidates tomorrow. Before he left she extracted a promise from him to talk more about this later. 

He rushed back to his rooms and changed into casual clothes and was only a few minutes late to meet Steve at the park. Steve had wanted to feed the ducks, and damn if that wasn’t the cutest thing Tony had ever heard. They sat on the bench and chatted about their days, and it felt easy and comfortable. Every once and awhile a duck would wander up and Steve would throw seeds at it. Steve had very earnestly informed Tony that white bread was bad for ducks, so now he brought them seeds. The ducks back home recognized him and would come up quacking whether he held a bag of seeds or not. That quickly doused Tony’s good mood. He hated the reminder that Steve had a life outside of Evergreen, that he would be returning to in less than two months. 

They had known each other for less than two weeks and Tony couldn’t imagine living without him. What was he supposed to do when Steve went home? He was the king, he couldn’t leave Evergreen, and he couldn’t ask Steve to give up his life back home. All he could do was enjoy what they had, for as long as he could. He pressed a gentle kiss to Steve’s head and the smile he got in return was like pure sunshine. 

### Chapter 6- Steve's Perspective

The next day Steve waited next to the phone with Sam. If he got in, they’d get a call before noon. The phone rang and Sam snatched it up. “Hello? Huh? Yeah...yeah….ok, nice talking to you.” He ended the call and tossed the phone down. Steve was dancing from foot to foot. “Well? Did you get it? Are you in? 

“No, sales call.” 

Steve deflated and Sam laughed at him. “No you idiot, that was them, I got in!” 

Steve cheered and clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s great news! Congratulations Sam!” 

His friend grinned and poked him. “Great news for you too, because that means we’re staying and you get more time with Tony.” 

Steve blushed, but before he could answer his phone rang. He frowned at the unknown number and answered it. It was another person from the castle, who introduced herself as Pepper. She explained that it was tradition for the King and his partner to do a simple skate at the end of the performance to close out the festival. They needed someone to coach the king, and were wondering if Steve would be interested? Steve quickly agreed, and hung up the phone with a polite goodbye. Sam was looking at him and waiting curiously. 

“Looks like you’re not the only one going in today.” 

Steve explained the call with glee and Sam cheered. They went back to the castle, which was just as impressive as the first time. A tall red headed woman greeted them and introduced herself as Pepper, and they signed the contracts she provided them. She showed them where their lockers were and remind them of the location of the rink. She issued them security badges and warned them off from wandering around the castle. She told them to be there by 8 the next morning, and everything was finally set up. 

Once they were on their way back to the motel he explained the contract in more detail and Sam whistled. “I can’t believe you’re going to be training an actual king. That’s nuts. What if he’s like ninety and breaks a hip? That’s treason right there.” 

“I don’t think they’d make him skate if he was that old. I think he’s around fifty? I’ll look him up.” Steve pulled up google and searched for pictures of the king. The first few results were of a dignified looking man with dark hair standing next to a smaller woman. Steve clicked on the picture and it filled the screen. The man was in his sixties at the latest, and stared back with sharp eyes. His arms were behind his back but his shoulders were so tight Stevie could tell that he was clenching his fists and bursting with impatience. The queen seemed warmer, if much more tired. She was almost slumped forward in her chair, leaning away from her husband. 

Steve was not looking forward to teaching this man, he looked like he was going to storm off in a rage the first time he fell on his butt. He also wondered why the woman on the phone hadn’t mentioned the Queen. Maybe she would be working with a different coach. 

He tapped out of the photo and returned to the search page. He was about to close the page when half of a face caught his eye on the bottom of the screen. Steve scrolled down and confirmed that it was Tony. Despite his nice suit, he looked absolutely wrecked in the picture, with dark circles under his eyes, and his hair falling into his face. He was leaning on a desk like it was the only thing holding him up. Curious, he clicked on the article and skimmed it. It talked about a tragic car crash, three dead including King Howard and Queen Maria along with their driver. They were survived by their son, Anthony Edward, who was crowned king three days later. Steve scrolled back up to the picture. It still looked a whole lot like Tony. He went back to the search page and scrolled down. After the first two rows of the older man, it was all Tony. Steve clicked through image after image, all labeled ‘King Anthony’. 

Steve learned two things that day. One, his boyfriend was a king. And two, more importantly, his boyfriend was a liar. 

### Chapter 7- Tony’s Perspective

Tony looked down at his phone and saw it was a text from Steve. He was in a meeting, so he opened it under the table. Tony felt his stomach sink. It said “Cancelling tonight’s plans” 

The only thing getting Tony through this meeting was the thought of meeting Steve right afterwards. And the text itself was worrying. Normally Steve used texting like writing a letter, he’d gotten texts from him that were several scrolls long and ended with him signing his name. Tony found it disgustingly charming. Had something gone wrong? Was he sick? Tony confirmed they were off and asked if everything was ok. Tony anxiously watched the dots as Steve typed. Someone clears their throat and Tony looked up guilty. 

Caught. 

He put his phone away for the rest of the meeting, thankfully only another ten minutes. Once it was over he pulled his phone out and read the message. “I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll talk then.” 

Tomorrow they had planned to see a movie around 7, and the thought of waiting that long to figure out what was going on was agonizing. Steve hadn’t answered if he was ok or not, but whatever was going on he didn’t seem to want to let Tony in on it yet. Tony forced himself to drop it. At the end of the day Steve had a right to his privacy, no matter how nervous Tony was getting. 

That was Tony’s last meeting of the day, and now that his plans with Steve were cancelled he let Pepper pull him aside to finally get all of the details out of him. Tony was more than happy to play along, gushing about how perfect Steve was was becoming his second favorite past time, after being with Steve himself of course. Pepper seemed overwhelmed. “You really like this guy.” 

“That’s what I’ve been telling you for the past half hour.” 

“The last six or seven relationships you’ve had didn’t make it past a month. When I asked you about Tiberius the most you could say was that he was there and you were bored. And now with this guy you're practically writing love poetry. You signed the document ‘Anthony Stark Rogers’, with little hearts. I’m going to need you to resign that by the way, it’s not legally binding right now.” Tony snatched the paper back from her. “Give me that. That’s private.” 

“Our water rights agreement with our neighbors is private?” 

“Quit going through my desk.” 

“Quit leaving the papers I need you to sign on your desk,” she retorted. “Besides, I have some good news for you. You know how you have to do a closing skate at the end of the festival?” 

Tony sat up in his chair, eyes wide. “What? No! Since when does that happen?” 

“Every year, you don’t remember your parents doing it? King Howard fell three years ago, and you laughed for weeks. You sent Rhodey and I about a hundred memes on it.” 

“Right, I do remember that. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen to me, I can’t skate!” 

“No, that’s the good news! I hired Steve to train you. I looked him up, he’s actually got some impressive credentials. I was trying to figure out how to get you down to training when you keep ignoring everything to do with the festival to hang out with Steve, so I thought why not combine Steve with the festival? Your first practice is tomorrow morning at 9.” 

Pepper smiled at him, ready for his thanks in being such a great wingwoman. Instead Tony looked at her in mounting horror. He stood up and grabbed her by the arms. “I need you to think back very carefully. What, exactly, did you tell him?” 

Pepper pushed him off, annoyed. “I told him you needed to learn to skate to close out the festival, what’s the big deal?” 

“So you didn’t mention anything about why or any titles?” 

“Tony. What did you do?” 

“I might have glossed over exactly what my job was.” Tony hedged, crossing his arms defensively and looking out the window. Pepper put her head in her hands. She loved her friend, but sometimes the urge to strangle him was almost overwhelming. “So, despite spending every waking moment with this guy over the past week, you somehow conveniently forgot to mention that you’re the king of an entire nation? And he got to find out by being hired to teach you to ice skate?” 

“That about sums it up.” 

"Tony-” 

“I was going to tell him eventually!” Tony sat back down and thunked his head on the desk. “The night we met, I was at the bar, and I had already been approached by seven or eight people all coming to yell at me for canceling the festival. I thought Steve was going to do the same thing, but instead he said he was from out of town and offered to buy me a drink. It was just such a relief. I didn’t have to be anyone for him besides myself. Being with Steve was easy, and being king complicates things.” 

“Sometimes life is complicated, you need to learn to deal with that. At least I don’t need to worry about him only being after you for the money. Remember Sunset? That was a whole mess. So what are you going to do now?” 

“Show up to ice skating lessons and hope he doesn’t hate me?” 

“That’s an exaggeration. You only lied for a week, and it was more a lie of omission than anything else. Besides, being a king isn’t the worst thing in the world, do you know how many kinds grow up dreaming of marrying a prince and living happily ever after? He might be pissed but I’m sure he won’t hate you.” 

### Chapter 8- Steve's Perspective

“I hate him, I absolutely hate him!” 

“Don’t you think this is a bit of an overreaction?” 

Sam drawled, laying on the bed in their motel while Steve paced angrily. Steve spun on Sam, fists clenched and face bright red. “NO! He lied to me for the entire time we’ve known each other!” 

“Oh yeah, a full week. What a terrible length of time to keep a secret.” Sam said dryly. Steve threw a pillow at him and he grabbed it out of the air and threw it right back, nailing his friend in the face. He laughed. “It’s not even a bad secret. You struck the motherlode here, man. He’s gotta be loaded.” 

“I don’t care! If he was lying about this, what else might he have been lying about? I can’t trust him, I don’t want anything else to do with him. I’m calling the castle to cancel.” 

Sam looked unhappy but didn’t protest as Steve redialed the number that called him earlier. A woman picked up and identified herself as Pepper and politely asked what she could do for him. 

“I'm not going to teach King Stark to skate.” Steve stated, plain and simple. There was a pause on the other side of the line. “I’m afraid that you signed a binding contract. You are legally required to show up and teach him. May I ask why you are trying to cancel the deal? Is it a family emergency? I’m sure the King would be happy to accommodate you in that case.” 

“It’s personal. Is there no way to dissolve the contract?” 

“Not unless there’s an emergency.” 

Steve briefly considered lying, but then he’d be no better than Tony. He huffed. “Fine. I’ll keep to my word.” 

Steve hung up and threw his phone on the bed. “The contract is binding, I can’t get out of it.” 

“How bad could it be? It’s two hours twice a week for six weeks. It’ll be over before you know it, and think of how good this will look on your resume.” 

Steve shrugged, unwilling to concede the point. They watched a movie and then Steve went back to his room to turn in early. He spent the night tossing and turning and got hardly any sleep. He was in a bitter mood by time he met Sam at the car. Sam drove up to the castle and they arrived at 8:45 sharp. Sam went to meet with the rest of the skaters to go over the script and choreography while Steve made his way to the rink to wait for Tony. 

A half hour later he was still waiting, tapping his foot impatiently. He heard a ruckus in the hall and Tony burst through the door, skidding slightly as he round the corner. 

When he reached Steve he bent over panting. After a few deep gulps he straightened up, pushing his hair out of his eyes in a gesture Steve refused to admit was charming. 

“Steve! Sorry I’m late, paperwork was due today that I needed to resign.” 

“Hmmm.” Steve said, unimpressed. Tony wilted. “And I’m guessing you figured out what my real job was?” 

Steve glowered at him, not dignifying that with a response. Tony bit his lip. “I don’t suppose this is the part where you tell me you’re secretly charmed and you’ve always wanted to marry a prince?” 

“You’re fifteen minutes late. This is your first and final warning. Next time you're late, you will be doing five push ups and five sit ups for every minute past 9.” 

“Come on Steve, I’m sorry. I was going to tell you eventually, please don’t be mad.” 

Steve looked away. Why did Tony have to have such big soulful puppy eyes? The temptation to forgive everything was strong. Because Tony was so kind, and so patient, and Steve had been so invested. That’s why he was so upset about the lie, because Steve had committed to the relationship they were building with his entire heart and soul. Yesterday if Tony had asked, Steve would have agreed to get married. Finding out that Tony had been lying about something as important as his job and family was like a slap to the face. 

There was no way they could have had a long lasting relationship without Steve finding this out, so no matter how life changing this all had been for Steve, it clearly was no more than a fling for Tony. Someone he could brush off the second he got bored or things got difficult. Steve might have been able to handle a fling, but there was no way he would be able to have a fling with Tony and not get hurt. It was better to break things off now than get any more invested. 

“I don’t forgive you. What we had is over.” 

“You’re breaking up with me?” 

“Yes.” Steve held firm despite the obvious distress in Tony’s voice. 

“Please don’t do this. There’s nothing I can do to change your mind? I really like you, Steve.” 

“You should have thought about that before you lied to me. Now are we training today or not?” 

“I need to go, I remembered some more paperwork I need to sign. Look, I’ll cancel the contract, you don’t need to do this.” 

“No, I’m doing this, because unlike some people I don’t lie about what I do. I am a skating coach and at the end of the six weeks I will have taught you how to skate. Now get on the ice.” 

Tony flinched back from him and Steve felt his heart break. His poor sweet Tony. No! Not sweet, a liar, he reminded himself. Tony mumbled excuses and left, never having put a foot on the ice. Steve went back to the car and laid down in the back seat to wait until Sam returned. That had been a disaster, and he still had five weeks of this to go. 

His phone rang around noon, it was Sam telling him to get his butt inside to get some of the free lunch. Steve came in and got a plate of food and found Sam easily enough at one of the outer tables. Steve sat down and Sam started grilling him. 

“So did you break up?” 

“Yes.” 

“What’d Tony say?” 

“Doesn’t matter. He lied, so now it’s over.” 

Steve chewed methodically at his food, keeping his eyes firmly down. Sam seemed disappointed. 

“So that’s it? One minute you’re in love and the next it’s completely over? I’d never seen you that happy before, and I’m sure the guy meant well. You can’t cut him a little slack?” 

“My ma raised me with principles, and I expect any partner of mine to keep them too.” That was the last Steve was willing to say on the matter, and he deflected all of Sams other attempts to talk about it. After lunch Sam returned to practice and Steve went back to town. He drove around aimlessly until Sam called to say he was done with practice. 

Dinner was quiet as Steve wasn’t in the mood to talk. 

The next day Sam left early for practice, and Steve was left with nothing to do. He wouldn’t be coaching Tony again until tomorrow, and Sam was being coached by the castle staff for the performance. None of the other people he coached needed help either, they were all taking it easy during the holidays and recovering from the recent olympics. Steve would feel bad leaving Sam alone and with no where else to be he resigned himself to staying in the stupid Christmas town. The problem was that it was horribly boring without Tony. After hours of aimless wandering he went to see the movie they had been planning to see together, alone. The whole time he kept looking beside him to tell Tony a joke or hear him mock a particularly cheesy line, and felt the twist of bitterness inside him grow every time he saw an empty seat. Steve left the movie theater in a bad mood and went back to the motel and collapsed into bed. There was nothing to do. He went through all the drawers in the room and the only thing he found was an old bible. That gave him an idea of something to do at least. Reading might be fun. 

He went back outside and into the reception area of the hotel where they had checked in. The same woman was there, still dressed as an elf but with a red sweater instead of a green one. She was typing away at her computer and didn’t look up as he approached. “Could I borrow today’s paper?” She nodded at a small table and Steve walked over. On top of it were papers from the past two weeks, all unopened. With nothing else to do and with clearly no one else reading the paper, Steve took the whole stack and went back to his room to read. 

He picked up the newest paper first. It was mostly local gossip, a few pieces of news from the neighboring countries. Not anything interesting. With nothing better to do, he started flipping through the older issues, working his way back. A headline caught his eye- “Festival back on!” He skimmed the article, though it didn’t offer much. The festival had been canceled by the king, and was back on for unknown reasons. Steve remembered that, he had about to leave town when the king changed his mind. When Tony changed his mind. A thought struck him. Had Tony allowed the festival to go on, just to keep Steve in town? He dismissed the thought. There was no way he’d make a major decision like that because of some stranger he took a fancy to the night before. That left him with no answers on why the festival was going forward, and raised the important question of why it was cancelled in the first place. 

He looked over the last paper, the issue published the day he had come into town, the day after the festival had been cancelled. It was downright rude to Tony. They called him selfish, stuck up, a child playing at king. How he was always wasting time on broken inventions instead of doing his job. It talked about how the town was desperate for the tourism money after he had cancelled the festival last year, and Tony was hurting everyone with his selfish decisions to avoid more work. Steve might have been more right than he realized to break up with the man. 

When Sam got back they had dinner, and Sam collapsed into bed after a long day of physical exertion. Meanwhile Steve felt like he was going to vibrate out of his skin after a day of doing nothing but lounging about. He avoiding going to bed, because the next day he was going to have to see Tony again and he was dreading it. He drifted off to sleep around one in the morning and awoke the next morning with a groan. He was uncharacteristically silent as they made the drive up to the castle, and Sam shoot him worried looks which he ignored. He arrived at the rink fifteen minutes early and settled in to wait for Tony. The man himself showed up fifteen minutes late, and wearing jeans with no coat or gloves. Steve sighed to himself. This was going to be even more painful than he thought. He got up from the bench and met Tony’s sheepish smile with a cold frown, and a finger pointed firmly downwards. “Drop and give me 75 push ups, 75 sit ups.” 

Tony’s smile withered. “I was in a meeting, not my fault it ran long.” 

Steve raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Most people get past the second practice before they start making excuses. The quicker you do them, the quicker we get to actual skating.” 

They glared at each other for a minute before Tony relented and sat down on the carpet covered concrete. He started doing sit ups, quickly at first then slowing to a painful crawl after he passed 50. He was clearly in pain by time he reached 75 but finished them in a reasonable amount of time. The push ups went much worse. He reached 40 then gave up, his trembling arms giving out. He stood back up, shaking his head. “That’s all I can do today.” 

It was more than Steve had expected. “You can do the rest after we practice. Get on the ice.” Steve led the way, slipping on easily and skating smooth laps while Tony put on his skates. The rink was very nice, and had not yet had anyone on it since it had been brushed the night before, so there were no bumps or divots to catch his skates. Steve enjoyed the feeling of the clean ice, of moving so quickly with so little effort. Tony had finished putting on his skates and was now hovering anxiously in the entrance to the rink. Steve skated over. “Are you waiting for an invitation?” 

“Give me a minute here, alright?” Tony snapped. He looked at the ice mistrustfully, and carefully put one foot on the ice. It slipped away from him and he quickly pulled back to the safety of the carpet. He tried again, keeping a death grip on the wall, and was able to get both feet on the ice. Now on, he slowly straightened up and let go of the wall. He took a cautious step forward and wobbled dangerously, he threw out his arms for balance and over corrected, landing hard on his butt. Steve didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or cry. He skated over to Tony and pulled him up, Tony practically hanging off him to stay upright. “I might be a little rusty.” 

“I noticed. I was going to start you on the choreography today but I guess we’ll be starting on moving without falling over.” 

They spent the rest of the two hours slowing gliding around the ice, Tony gradually gaining confidence and speed until he could skate in a straight line without falling. So, about the level Steve was at when he was four. It was progress at least, and Steve got a laugh every time Tony tipped over like a gangly deer. He also got quite a bit of satisfaction from watching Tony struggle through the last of his 70 push ups. 

They wrapped up practice and Steve left to meet Sam for lunch. After chatting with Sam and finishing off a mediocre sandwich, he decided to wander the castle. There was no point in going back into town because he’d only have an hour before he needed to come back to get Sam. Building castles on cliffs was picturesque but it made the commute a real inconvenience. Besides, it’s not like there was anything to do at the motel anyway. He walked through the entryway, a ballroom, and through a few studies. He found the kitchen, still cleaning up from lunch, so he decided not to bother them. He walked up a flight of stairs to the balcony overlooking the rink and spent some time watching the skaters glide around below. A part of him itched to go down there and correct their form. He resisted, and continued his exploration. 

He walked past a heavy wooden door and paused as he heard a familiar voice. Tony. He walked closer and looked through the crack to see Tony sitting on a desk, arms crossed, talking to the red headed woman who had given him the papers to sign. Patty? No, Pepper. Looked like she needed Tony to sign something, and he was being much more uncooperative. 

“I know you’ve had a rough couple days but I need this done now. We were making really great progress on the planning for the festival, you can’t give up now.” 

“Please stop talking to me about the stupid festival.” 

“Just sign the papers, you don’t even have to read it.” 

Tony stood up and walked around the desk, pulling it open roughly. He grabbed a pen and scrawled his name over a few lines and pushed them all back towards his assistant. 

“You happy?” 

Pepper gathered them up into a neat pile, tapping them neatly on the desk. “About this, sure. Generally? I don’t like seeing you like this. I know this is already a hard time of year for you, between all the extra work from the festival, and….. well.” Pepper trailed off, and Tony gave her a warning glare. “I don’t want to talk about them.” 

“I know. I’m just saying, you didn’t need a break up on top of everything else.” 

Tony looked away. “Will that be all, Miss Potts?” 

“That will be all, your highness.” 

Steve realized their conversation was coming to an end and jolted back from the door. He fast walked away, shoulders hunched up around his ears. He should not have done that. At least he didn’t get caught. 

“Mr. Rogers?” 

Shit. 

He plastered a smile on his face and turned around to see Pepper walking briskly towards him. “You are not authorized to be in this area.” 

Had she noticed his listening at the door, or was he just in trouble for trespassing? 

“I had some time and I thought that I would do some exploring. The castle is gorgeous.” 

“That’s why we offer tours twice a month. Please stay in the skating and dining areas from now on.” 

“Of course ma’m.” 

She nodded and walked beside him as he returned to the dining center. Once he was inside, she gave a final warning look and left to go file her papers. Steve breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t noticed the spying. Steve couldn’t believe himself. Spying? He was terrible. And now he had more questions than answers. Who was the mysterious “them” that was making things hard on Tony? And how? Why? As hard as he tried to stop himself, he still cared about Tony and the thought of some thugs harassing him made Steve’s blood boil. He needed to find out more. Someone bothering the king was probably a federal crime, looking into this would be a national service. He might even get a medal. 

He spent the next half hour searching on his phone for anyone who could be bothering his Tony. Not his Tony. The king. Right. 

It turned out the king had lots of enemies, both abroad and right here in Evergreen. Steve was grudgingly impressed that Tony had somehow managed to personally piss off the entire nation of France. How did he even do that? 

He started to make a list and gave up after he filled two sheets of paper, front and back, and showed no sign of slowing. This wasn’t helpful. 

Sam walked up behind him, his skates tossed over his shoulder. “Ready to go?” 

“Yeah. How was practice?” 

“Good, we’re still focusing on the choreography. Whatcha working on there?” 

“Something for Tony.” 

“Oh good, I’m glad you made up so quickly. I thought you were going to drag this out for weeks and make everyone miserable for nothing.” Sam said with a chuckle. Steve punched him in the arm. 

“No! We did not make up, we’re never making up! It’s over!” 

Sam rolled his eyes to the heavens. “Of course. There is nothing going on between you and Tony, which is why you’re making him-“ 

Sam snatched the paper away and squinted at it. “-lists of French government officials? What is this?” 

Steve snatched his paper back and crumpled it up. “Doesn’t matter. I overheard a conversation between him and Pepper and she said something about a “them” making things hard on him. I was trying to figure out who she was talking about.” 

“And you decided that it must be most of France? Steve, you’re great at many things, but Sherlock Holmes you ain’t.” 

Steve tossed his balled up list at the trash can. He missed, and had to get up and try again while Sam snickered at him. “Forget I said anything. It was stupid.” 

“I don’t think you need to worry about him. He’s the king, I’m sure he has body guards. He’ll be fine. You don’t need to personally step in to save him from the nation of France with your tiny angry fists.” 

Sam patted him on the shoulder condescendingly and Steve shrugged him off with a laugh and a return punch. He supposed his friend was right, that this was a little ridiculous. Without more information, there was nothing else he could do. They drove back to town, and Steve dropped it for the rest of the week, until he could come back and look for more evidence of what was going on. 

### Chapter 9- Tony’s Perspective

This time Tony made sure to show up at 9 on the dot. It meant he had to reschedule a meeting with the city planners which meant he had to push back a different meeting with the chief of police which meant he wouldn’t have time to check the safety regulations for the floats unless he wanted to work until midnight, again. For the second time this week, and it was only Tuesday. Tony sighed to himself as he trudged down to the ice rink. He really hated this time of year, when everything happened all at once. He was tired and sad and felt like crap. He must look like crap too, based off the concerned looks Steve kept shooting him. He kept asking weird questions, too. 

“Has anyone been bothering you lately? Keep your arm up. No, higher.” 

“The only person harassing me here is you.” Tony said with a frown, dulfully raising his arm higher as he wobbled towards where the pedestals would be. He hoped this didn’t look as stupid as it felt. There was no way he was coming out of this without at least a few of the papers panning him. And if he fell… boy, they’d be using that picture for years to come. Steve seemed to read his mind. 

“Is it the papers who are bothering you?” He guessed. Tony shook his head, both at the question and Steve’s stubborn persistence. 

“No. I mean yes, they’re always bothering me. But no more so than usual. They’re happy the festival is happening this year and they’ve been busy covering that. Is someone supposed to be harassing me? Did you hire someone to bother me and you’re trying to see if you’re getting your money's worth or something?” He snapped, and Steve jerked back, eyes wide. Tony immediately felt regret. “No, I’m sorry, I know you would never do that.” 

Steve accepted his apology, and thankfully dropped the subject. They spent the rest of the time focused on the skating. Tony was tired when it was over, and could tell soreness was going to set in in a few hours. Between the soreness, bruising on his butt, and awkwardness with Steve, he was glad these things were only once or twice a week. He grabbed a sandwich from the dining area and went to his office to talk with Pepper before the meeting with the city planners. She had more papers for him to look over, it never seemed to end. He signed them as quickly as he could so he could get to reviewing his documents before the meeting. Pepper took them with a nod and stepped out of the room, where Tony heard her run into someone and fall over. Tony stood up from the desk and walked over to help her to her feet. He brushed off the sleeve of her jacket and reached out a hand to pull up the man she had run into. The man looked up and Tony recognized the brilliant blue eyes with a shock. “Steve?” 

“Umm.” 

Tony pulled him up. “What are you doing here? This part of the castle is restricted.” 

Pepper folded her arms and frowned. “I told him that yesterday when I caught him snooping. I’m calling Happy, he’s a security risk.” 

Pepper stepped away and started hitting buttons on her phone. Steve stepped forward to grab it and Tony held out an arm, blocking him. Steve took a step back, frustrated. 

“I’m not a security risk, I’m trying to protect you!” He insisted. 

Tony squinted at him. “From what, exactly?” 

“.......France?” 

Tony shook his head and didn’t interfere as Happy came and put a restraining hand on Steve’s shoulder. “You sure know how to pick ‘em, huh boss. First Sunset, now this guy.” 

“Look, I’m going to be late for my meeting, we can talk about my many terrible choices later.” Tony didn’t know how he felt about this. He went back into his office and emerged with a stack of papers, and went down the hall with Pepper. Happy pushed Steve in the opposite direction and they started walking. “So what, now you’re going to throw me in the dungeons? I demand a fair trial!” 

“I’m escorting you to the parking lot.” 

Tony snorted as they turned a corner and went out of hearing range. Pepper was less amused. “Spying is serious stuff, Tony.” She cautioned him. “He might have been out to get you this whole time.” 

Tony shook his head. “Steve? Nah. He wouldn’t have broken up with me if his only goal was to get an in to the castle. He was probably bored. Get him a crossword or something and I’m sure he’ll settle down.” 

“I’m not sure I want to risk it. We can always find you a new coach. I’ll look into it.” 

“I’ve only got three, maybe four practices left. It’s not worth it.” 

Pepper didn’t seem convinced but they walked into the meeting and she was forced to drop it for the time being. In truth, Tony was happy that Steve was snooping and apparently trying to protect him. That meant he still cared, right? Tony forced his hope back down. No point in reading into this, they’re were still over and Steve was going home to the US in a few weeks. Tony rested his head in his hands and let the sounds of various advisors wash over him. 

He wished he could go tinker instead. He had never had a taste for any of this king stuff, one of the many reasons his father and this kingdom called him a disappointment. 

He was so close to a break through with his arc reactor, he knew it. All he needed were a few uninterrupted weeks. It could revolutionize clean energy, but everyone here referred to it as a glorified light bulb. And at this rate, that was all it ever was going to be, with his job as King taking up all of his time in meetings and busywork. It wasn’t until he got to spend time with Steve pretending to be normal that he realized how much he truly hated being in charge. Like right now. He didn’t care whether or not coffee shops could be allowed in residential zones. He didn’t care if the parade went north to south or south to north, he didn’t care if the string lights were white or multi colored, he didn’t care if they painted floats with Santa’s or gingerbread. 

So he plastered a serious look on his face and pretended to listen while the advisors figured it out for themselves. After that meeting Pepper shuttled him to the next, and he got to go through the whole thing all over again. After dinner it was time for more paperwork. The bed, then lather, rinse, repeat. Then it was Thursday, time to see Steve again. Tony couldn’t tell if he was excited or dreading it. On one hand, Steve. On the other hand, also Steve. 

He made it practice a few minutes late, and did his push ups and sit ups without complaining. Soon enough he was wobbling his way around the ice. He had improved since his first time, and could skate in a line well enough. Turns were tricky and tricks were out of the question. The choreography called for a spin and that wasn’t going to be happening as far as Tony was concerned. Steve had other plans, and was trying to demonstrate. He did a spin on one foot as easy as he breathed. Tony picked one foot up and skated face first into a wall. He blinked at the ceiling as Steve rushed over and pushed him up into a sitting position, then pushed his head between his knees. Red drops hit the ice and Tony reached a cautious hands up. Bloody nose, didn’t hurt enough to be broken. Steve was freaking out more than Tony, rubbing his back, telling him he was going to be ok with an edge of barely concealed panic. 

“I’m fine, Steve.” 

“Right, totally fine, everything is going to be fine. Can you stand? No, stay here, I’ll find someone to carry you.” 

“Carry- no, no one is carrying me.” Tony stood up and swayed back and forth. A little light headed, he had had worse. Steve helped him off the ice and ran to get him a box of tissues. Tony sat on a bench and put his head down again, and the bleeding stopped a few minutes later. Steve was still hovering around him, offering him water and tissues. 

“No one is going to blame you for this, they’re not going to throw you in the dungeons for harming the king, or whatever else you’re thinking.” 

“I wasn’t worried about any of that. I don’t like seeing you hurt.” Steve gently took Tony’s face in his hands and tilted it up, looking for damage. 

“Doesn’t look broken.” 

“Doesn’t feel broken.” 

Steve ran a hand through Tony’s hair and he let his eyes flutter shut. 

“That feels good.” 

“I was checking for lumps. You might have a concussion.” 

“Maybe. I think you better check again to be sure.” 

Steve huffed, but didn’t stop running his hands through Tony’s hair, so he counted it as a win. He leaned forward on the bench and rested his head against Steve’s stomach, and Steve kept up the soothing motions,and they stayed that way for the last ten minutes of practice. Then Tony’s stomach rumbled, and Steve insisted that he come with him to the dining area to get some lunch. They made a stop in the bathrooms so Tony could wash the blood off his face while Steve did his best to rinse it out of his shirt. Tony put his shirt back on and they went and got food, sitting across from each other at a table. Sam wandered over a few minutes later. “Ok, so now you’re back together?” 

Steve paused from chewing his sandwich. “No.” 

Sam frowned at him. “No?” 

“No.” Tony confirmed morosely, shooting Steve a wistful look. Sam sat down and started eating his soup. “You two have a weird relationship. No, don’t explain, I don’t want to know. How did practice go?” 

“I skated into a wall and almost broke my nose.” Tony said sadly, poking at his stained shirt. His nose was still hurting and it was going to be miserable sitting through the rest of his meetings today like this. Steve gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder, before turning back to Sam. 

“You remember how I always like to say that no student is hopeless? That with patience and a good teacher any student can succeed?” 

Sam nodded. “Inspirational speech number six, sure, it’s a classic.” 

“Well, Tony is hopeless.” Steve said bluntly. Tony shrugged in agreement. 

“I’d protest if it weren’t true.” 

“He’d be fine if we had more time or he had less to do. They want him to do a one legged pirouette, Sam! A one leg pirouette! While holding a flaming torch!” 

Tony choked on his drink. “What?” 

Steve continued. “He’s only been on the ice a half dozen times his entire life. There’s no way.” He shook his head sadly. Tony waved his hand at him. “Hey! Go back to the part about a flaming torch. Nobody has told me anything about a flaming torch.” 

“That’s why you needed to keep your arm up. Otherwise you’ll burn your eyebrows off.” 

Tony looked at him. “You’re joking. You’re messing with me.” 

Steve shook his head. “Have you not read the requirements of the skate? It’s all written out, torches included.” 

Tony was unwilling to admit that in fact he had not read the requirements. He rarely read anything unless Pepper made him. Has was a busy guy, alright? Steve was joking, he had to be. He had agreed to ice skating, not fire juggling. The subject changed and the three of them fell into easy banter. 

When Tony finished his food he considered what to do with Steve. Technically he was supposed to call Happy and have him banished to the parking lot. Knowing Steve, that would mean he would wander off and get into even more trouble. Maybe even cause a landslide or get locked up for real. Having him come hang out in Tony’s office was really doing the world a public service, he concluded. Once the other two finished as well, Sam went back to practice and Tony brought Steve with him back to his office, where he set him to putting sticky tabs where he was supposed to sign to cut down on the time he wasted flipping through the pages and pages of paperwork. Steve took to the task without complaint, seeming to be happy to have something productive to do. 

“Shouldn’t you be reading this stuff before you sign it?” 

Tony shrugged. “Nah. Even if I disagreed, I’d still have to sign. All of these papers are contracts, arranged in advance by a team of advisors, selected by the different districts of Evergreen. The king is mostly a figurehead these days, though no one likes to admit it. The only things I control are the set in stone traditions, like the festival.” 

“Which you canceled.” 

Tony made a face. “Which I cancelled, yes.” 

“I’m sure you had your reasons.” 

“That’s a generous assumption.” 

Steve looked up from the papers in time to catch Tony’s darting glance to the portrait hanging from the wall. Tony hated that portrait. King Howard glowered out from the frame, large as life, a look of bitter disappointment on his face. Maria stood behind him, half cast in his shadow, her expression neutral. Once Tony got married, another portrait would be commissioned to take this one's place, and this one would be relegated to the long hall at the entrance of the castle, filled with generations of royals families, stretching back to the founding of the small nation. There was something about the creation of the country to do with Christmas. They had been founded on Christmas? Some king had been saved on Christmas? Tony hadn’t payed attention to any of his history lessons. He wasn’t paying attention now, either. “Sorry, could you repeat that?” 

“Doesn’t matter. I’m sorry for your loss.” 

“Thank you. The one year anniversary is the 16th. Feels like it’s been longer.” 

Tony could tell something had clicked for Steve, as he sat up straighter in his chair on the other side of Tony’s desk. “So no one is bothering you, you’re bothered by missing them. And that’s why you cancelled the festival.” 

“I had other things on my mind than doing ceremonial ice skating. I think the parade still happened? Anything that needed me there, I cancelled. It was my first order as king, matter of fact. Went over like a lead balloon, and went even worse the second time. You weren’t the first person to approach me at the bar, but you were the first who didn’t come over to yell at me for being the worst king ever. To you, I was just some guy, and I wanted to hold onto that. I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry I lied.” 

“Oh Tony. I’m not even that mad.” Steve admitted with a sigh. 

“What?” Tony asked, his eyebrows drawing together in confusion. Steve bit his lip and looked away, out the window. 

“I ran with it, because it was an excuse and I didn’t want to think too hard about anything or how I screwed up. I’m leaving after the show. I’ve known that since the start. It’s always been my dream to skate and travel and I can’t bear the thought of giving it up.” He looked back at Tony and gently held his hands. “I can’t stay, you can’t leave. So it was easier to say you were a liar and break it off because of that, than to force myself decide between giving up on my dreams or on you. And now it’s over, and I still find myself in your office. I can’t seem to stay away, no matter how hard I try. I spent my free time reading about you in the papers, wondering what you would think of movies, worrying about people threatening you,” 

“-listening in on my conversations…..” Tony added. 

“Maybe.” Steve admitted with a huff. “Nothing you could prove. Point is, I have no idea how any of this is going to work. Kiss me anyway.” He demanded. 

“That is a terrible plan. Absolutely atrocious.” Tony retorted playfully. He got up and walked around the desk. Steve stood up and Tony rested a gentle hand on the side of his face, his eyes turning serious. Steve leaned into it and Tony felt his heart melt. ”You’re going to break my heart again.” He said as matter of fact as he could, his voice wobbling anyway. Steve’s eyes fluttered shut and he pressed a gentle kiss to the palm of Tony’s hand. 

“I'll break mine too in the process.” 

“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel better.” Tony took a deep breath. “If you didn’t have to pick, what would you do?” 

“It’s redundant.” Steve said, stubborn as ever. God, he loved this man. 

“If anything was possible, what would you do?” Tony insisted. He stared into Steve’s eyes and felt himself drowning in the blue, utterly adrift, waiting to see where the current would take him. 

“I’d say I’ve known you for less than a month and we spent most of that time fighting. I’d say I hate you, love you, hate how much I love you. I’d say I have a ring for you in the glove box of my crappy rental car because when I’m with you it feels like every stupid cheesy sappy cliche about love and I never want it to end. If I didn’t have to pick? I’d say marry me.” 

“Yes.” 

They both looked at each other, eyes wide. 

“Did you say-“ 

”-you bought a-“ 

They started at the same time, talking over each other, both panicking. In a good way! Tony had never been this delighted to be panicked, that was for sure. He grabbed Steve and pulled him in for a kiss, effectively shutting both of them up. When they pulled apart, Tony demanded, “show me.” They ran out to the car, hand in hand, giggling like teenagers. Steve unlocked it with a beep at dug around in the glove box before returning triumphantly with a small black box. He got on one knee. “Tony, will you marry me?” 

Tony pulled him up, and into another kiss, then another, then another. “I already said yes.” He laughed. 

Steve crinkled up his nose. “Doesn't hurts to double check.” He took his hand and slipped the ring on. Tony took a second to admire it, a red gem set in a gold band. 

“Good enough for a king?” Steve asked, his playful tone not masking the underlying worry surrounding the question. Tony didn’t need a lot in the way of people skills to get they were talking about more than just rings. 

“More than enough for me,” Tony assured him. “More than enough,” he said again, pressing his face into Steve’s shoulder, because he wasn’t crying, there was dust in his eye, and he didn’t want anyone walking by to get the wrong impression. If Steve was doing the same thing, well, great minds think alike. 

### Chapter 10- Steve's Perspective

A few days later Steve was grabbing a hotdog at a Christmas themed equivalent of a 7/11 (and if you’re wondering how well that worked...it didn’t) when a paper caught his eye. He picked it up. “Christmas Curse?” It questioned, before devolving into a story about tragedy striking the royal bloodline days before the festival once more. Trusted sources reported King Anthony of the late King Howard had been rushed to the hospital the previous day due to severe burns complicated by a head injury during training while skating with a lit torch, and had passed away from his combined injuries some time last night. 

Steve scowled at the paper. The standards for journalism in this town were truly rock bottom, to let them print such lies. Steve glanced at the next paper in the stack. Same thing. Snappy alliteration about the kings untimely death after such a short rule, and unanswered questions about the heir to the throne. Steve paged through all the papers and magazines on the rack, all saying the same thing. 

He felt a tendril of fear work its way through his gut. What if…. he dismissed the thought. Pepper would have called him. After their surprise engagement, Steve had told Sam, and Tony Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey. Their friends had been supportive, after a half hour of yelling. Since then, Steve and Tony had picked back up on their dates, and were blissfully happy. Steve had yet to bring up the elephant in the room, the end of the festival and his departure. Maybe if he ignored it hard enough it would go away. Until then, they still had two weeks to enjoy each other’s company, and Steve was going to see Tony again tonight at the castle to make eggnog and watch old movies. With hours to burn he went back to his motel and sat on the bed. He pulled out a crossword puzzle book Tony gave him and turned on the TV for some background noise. He glanced up when he heard Pepper’s voice. “Thank you all for attending this press conference at such short notice. At 9 am yesterday there was a training accident involving a his royal highness. He was brought to the hospital and succumbed to his injuries early last night.” 

Everyone in the crowd stood up, yelling questions. Steve realized numbly that at some point he had stood up as well. He rested both hands on top of the tv, as if he could somehow make it shut up. Pepper continued on talking about mourning periods and heirs to the throne as Steve’s ear seemed to fill with a relentless buzz. He collapsed backwards onto the bed. This wasn’t possible. Tony was fine. He would call him, and he would pick up, and say something stupid because he was Tony, and heaven forbid he be serious for even a second. 

Steve picked up his phone from where it was charging against the wall. Two missed calls and a message from a unknown number. He ignored it, and open up his messages with Tony. No new messages. Last thing sent was a goodnight message from the night before. Had Tony sent it from the hospital? There was nothing about being hurt, just a simple “goodnight, I love you”, like they did every night since getting back together. Steve hit the call button. The phone rang, and lead to an answering machine. “King Anthony speaking, leave your message at the tone.” Steve remembered razzing Tony over it, how dull it was in comparison to everything else he did. Tony had made a face like he sucked a lemon, and explained that he had the same number for friends as he did advisors and dignitaries. No work/life separation for the king, so he had to be professional. Steve left a message and sent him a text, asking if he was ok. He was about to text Pepper when there was a knock at the door. He tossed his phone on the bed and got up to answer it. He didn’t have time for whatever this was, he need to find out what was going on with Tony. He pulled open the door and there was the man himself, his beautiful brown eyes flashing with life. 

“Tony!” Steve yelled in relief, and ran forward to hug him. Tony swayed backwards with the force of the hug, and quickly returned it. 

“I thought you were hurt.” Steve mumbled, his head buried in Tony’s shoulder. Tony gave him a few consoling pats on the back. 

“I texted you to say not to believe anything you saw on TV.” 

“I didn’t get it. Unless you changed your number.” 

“Of course. Can’t keep my old one after I’ve faked my own death on gone on the run.” 

Steve jerked back, eyes wide. “What?” 

“Only you, Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey know I’m still alive. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, King Anthony Stark is no more.” 

He held out his hand and Steve blinked at him in confusion. Tony gave it a wiggle and Steve hesitantly took it. Tony shook it and introduced himself. 

“Hi, Edward Rogers, nice to meet you. I hope you don’t mind I took your last name a bit early.” 

“Tony! You can’t just leave!” Steve said, distraught. Tony just laughed. 

“Eddy now. And why ever not? You love your job, I love you, if you can’t stay here I’ll go with you. Unfortunately you can’t decided to quit being king, so I had to get a little creative. The advisors will take care of every like they always do until they can find a new figured head. I’m sure I have a cousin somewhere.” 

“You-you just-you can’t-” Steve stumbled out, his mind thinking up hundreds of worst case scenarios. 

“Can and did. You get to skate, I get to invent, we get to get married.” 

Steve stopped and took a deep breath, forcing his mind to settle. Tony was smart, and he was thorough. If he thought everything was going to work out with the kingdom, he would trust him. He pulled Tony into a tight hug. He had given up being an actual real king, with a castle and a crown, all for Steve. 

Most fairy tales ended up with the hero going to the castle to marry the prince. Driving away from the castle in the middle of the night with Tony hiding under a blanket in the backseat to make it through the border was the exact opposite of that, but somehow Steve didn’t have any doubts about living happily ever after. 

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This is my first time ever posting a story so I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know if I used any tags incorrectly or did anything else wrong, I'm still learning.


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